"We should speak clearly, forthrightly and call our leaders back to honesty. We should demand the truth, and refuse to be put to sleep. And those 'leaders' who play those games must also be put to shame, and out to pasture."
RC Sproul Jr on "Spin" in Every Thought Captive, Vol. 5, Issue 5

Sunday, September 20, 2015

R.C. Sproul Jr's Ashley Madison Scandal

R.C. Sproul Jr's confession to "visiting" the affair web site Ashley Madison has been widely reported, both in the mainline news media and by bloggers. Once again R.C. Sproul Jr has brought great shame to the body of Christ,
giving cause for unbelievers to mock the name of our Lord, along with
the conservative family values he espouses.

For his Ashley Madison "visit" Ligonier Ministries suspended R.C. Sproul Jr until July 2016. As of this date R.C. Sproul Jr. is still listed on staff as a Pastor of Ascension Presbyterian Church in Longwood, Florida. Some have openly questioned whether Sproul's Ligonier Ministries suspension was too severe a punishment for what, on the surface appears to be, a rather harmless action. This article will prove just the opposite is the case.

R.C. Sproul Jr, the savant of spin, has long been a careful observer and pundit of political strategists. He well knows of Lanny Davis, special counsel to President Clinton, who counseled the
President and White House staffers, "Tell it all, tell it early, tell it
yourself." With his imminent outing in the Ashley Madison hack R.C. Sproul Jr. appreciated the wisdom of "tell it early, tell it yourself." In outing himself he was able to control the story and limit the extent of the damage (Josh Duggar could have learned something from Sproul). Unfortunately, Sproul fell far short of "tell it all."

It was right that Ligonier Ministries suspended R.C. Sproul Jr for a year. However, as this article will explain, his "suspension" hardly qualifies as punishment, and his "confession" is a sham intended to garner sympathy, and even admiration, by feigning humble contrition. R.C. Sproul Jr has spun his Ashley Madison scandal very much like he did when he was defrocked from the ministry in 2006. He has yet once again put the best possible face on a scandal of his own making, even turning it to his own advantage.

The last thing the church needs is another spinmeister. In coming weeks and months we're likely to hear of other pastors and ministers, and perhaps hundreds of them, whose names will come out for having Ashley Madison accounts. My fear is that they'll follow R.C. Sproul Jr's example of faux repentance, garnering sympathy and even admiration they in no way merit, and offering themselves up for a golden parachute "suspension."

"In August 2014, in a moment of weakness, pain, and from an unhealthy curiosity, I visited Ashley Madison. My goal was not to gather research for critical commentary, but to fan the flames of my imagination. There I found two gracious judgments. First, I felt the grace of fear. Second, I felt the grace of shame. I was there long enough to leave an old email address. And within minutes I left, never to return. I did not sign up for their service or interact with any clients. I have always remained faithful to my wife even after her passing."

This language is remarkably similar to the faux repentance and saccharine religious rhetoric he used to announce his defrocking in 2006. In almost 10 years nothing has changed, and just like in 2006 he seeks to diminish the seriousness of his sin with terms like, "unhealthy curiosity." Why not just call it what it is? Lust. What better way to pursue one's lust than through the privacy of the internet? According to porn watchdog organization Covenant Eyes, 50 percent of Christian men and 20 percent of Christian women admit they're addicted to porn. The figure for pastors is no better. Not all porn addicts go on to arrange affairs, but porn can serve as a gateway to it, as even Josh Duggar confessed is true of himself. So based on statistical probabilities R.C. Sproul Jr has a 50% likelihood of being a porn addict.

Porn is a huge problem in the church and growing worse. However, what far fewer Christians struggle with (I trust) is being compelled to take actions which will lead them headlong into an affair. R.C. Sproul Jr's actions on the Ashley Madison site clearly demonstrate that he intended to arrange an affair. Apparently he stopped just short of finalizing a rendezvous. However, his intentions, and taking the first steps in acting on those intentions, should be of far greater concern to the church than many bloggers have demonstrated thus far. If they're so willing to give Sproul a pass than where will they draw the line with the many other pastors who are likely to also be outed in coming months?

Contrary to the opinions of many Christian bloggers who have covered this story, an "affair" is not limited to cheating on one's spouse. Unattached single people also have affairs. An affair is properly defined as, "A secret sexual relationship between two people, generally of a short term nature." Ashley Madison advertises itself as "the number one service for people seeking discreet relationships" and they arrange affairs for marrieds, singles, and gays. Given that His wife passed away in 2011, no one would have faulted R.C. Sproul Jr had he registerred for a Christian dating site account like eHarmony or Christian Mingle. But Ashley Madison isn't a dating site. It's an "affair" site and no one could fail to miss that.

For the most part R.C. Sproul Jr's "confession" has been accepted, at least by Christians, with nary a doubt as to his sincerity and honesty. Indeed, many have commented that his confession was humble, contrite, thorough, and even admirable. Such a response only demonstrates remarkable naiveté. With very little effort R.C. Sproul Jr's story comes crashing down like a house of straw.

That's "registered an Ashely Madison account" not "visited"
Let's start with, "I visited Ashley Madison... I was there long enough to leave an old email address. And within minutes I left..." The fact of the matter is that R.C. Sproul Jr left far more than "an old email address." He did not just "visit." One cannot leave an email address with Ashley Madison without registering an account. R.C. Sproul Jr very cunningly and deceptively substituted the innocent and benign "visited" for the far more egregious "registered." Why does this distinction matter? Let's start the process of registering an Ashley Madison account to find out.

The Ashley Madison homepage presents "visitors" with a "Select" list. If you never go beyond the Ashley Madison home page it would be reasonable to say you only "visited." If you go beyond this point you are "registering for an Ashley Madison account":

To get beyond this page you must select a "relationship status." One would presume that R.C. Sproul Jr selected "Single Male seeking Females." This is where many bloggers and blog commenters have gotten themselves confused. They believe that Ashley Madison is only for married people seeking to cheat on their spouses. RC Jr isn't married (his wife passed away in 2011) so, therefore, no harm no foul. Right? Wrong. Ashley Madison is for everyone, married, single, and even gay. The objective is to "have an affair" and single people have affairs too, whether they're attached or not. Furthermore, the probability is high that any women R.C. Sproul Jr would have rendezvoused with through Ashley Madison would have been married. By registering for an Ashley Madison account he was giving a green light for married women to break their marriage vows. So much for his commitment to "family values."

Once you select an item from the list you're taken to the next page where you're presented with the following list to fill in and items to select. This is where R.C. Sproul Jr gave Ashley Madison his email address, as well as additional information.

Immediately below the "I Agree" button it states: "To help you have a successful affair, Ashley Madison and its affiliated entities will periodically notify you of potential matches in your area, new matches you've received, changes to the service and other services that may be of interest to you." How would Ashley Madison contact R.C. Sproul Jr to notify him of "potential matches" to "have a successful affair"? Through the email address that he registered his account with.

Perhaps the most disturbing selection field is affair "Limits":

Like every other field on the page "Limits" isn't an optional item. You have to select one of the above, as well as fill in all the other fields, in order to select "I Agree" and have your information saved to register your Ashley Madison account. So which of the above affair "Limits" could R.C. Sproul Jr select and it not be highly problematic? That's right, none of the above. In the context of "Life is short, have an affair," they're all bad.

"I did not sign up for their service"
R.C. Sproul Jr claims "I did not sign up for their service." This is just more spin. R.C. Sproul Jr registered for an Ashely Madison account. He did far more than merely "visit" the site. In registering for an account he most certainly did "sign up for their service." What he apparently didn't do is give them a credit card and order something like the Ashley Madison "Affair Guarantee" package like Josh Duggar paid $249 for. The fact that he may not have given them a credit card doesn't in any way diminish the severity of his sin, particularly in light of his having to specify his affair "Limits."

"I hope, however, that my children still don’t know about Ashley Madison, a website that I only recently learned about."

In the context of his article, "recently"
more than implies that R.C. Sproul Jr hadn't ever heard of Ashley
Madison prior to the media publicity about their being hacked. Yet with his
subsequent August 31 2015 "confession" it became clear that he'd not only known about
Ashley Madison for at least a year, he'd even opened his own
Ashley Madison account the previous year in August 2014. He stated:

“In August 2014, in a moment of weakness, pain, and from an unhealthy curiosity, I visited Ashley Madison.”

Yet his August 31 2015 "confession" gave no explanation for this glaring disparity in his stories. Once again, R.C. Sproul Jr did not "confess it all," not even close.

In that same article he says of Ashley Madison,

"It is a website which exists to facilitate adultery."

Yet, knowing that, he'd signed up for an account himself anyway. He goes on to say,

"They’re actually threatening that if Ashley Madison does not shut down
they will publicly release all the names of those who have sought the
services of Ashley Madison. I suspect that there are a lot of people privately sweating, 37 million of them, probably."

He was among the 37 million sweating, losing sleep, stressed out. Like all the other 37 million Ashley Madison account holders R.C. Sproul Jr was asking himself, "What do I do?" He had to formulate a Plan A and a Plan B. Plan B was for the worst case scenario of the hackers releasing the files. No doubt he hoped the hackers wouldn't release the files, and that would be his Plan A, which was to forget all about it and do nothing. If the hackers hadn't ever released the files
would R.C. Sproul Jr ever have confessed? No way! And this goes to prove the point that his "confession" was a sham. It was forced, and not by the conviction of the Holy Spirit working on his conscience. He "confessed" only because he knew that if he didn't out himself it was inevitable someone else would and the resulting damage would have been far worse.

"This, after all, is quite a moral train wreck."
On June 4, 2015 R.C. Sproul Jr posted an article on the sex scandals of Josh Duggar and Dennis Hastert. In it he stated:

"We, of all people should be the people quickest to repent, quickest to
acknowledge our sins. We should be the ones saying, 'I am not holier
than thou.' But we’re not. I wonder if perhaps we might silence our critics, if we might quit the
baying of the wolves if we would instead regularly, fully, and
fearlessly confess our sins."

One might suppose such an article came from a sincere heart. If it had been sincere Sproul would have promptly informed the church where he pastors, and Ligonier Ministries, that he'd registered an Ashley Madison account. But he didn't. Instead he only posted pious sounding articles about what a terrible thing it was that anyone could have an Ashley Madison account. When he ultimately did "confess" three months later his confession was anything but "fully and fearlessly." He only did so after it became publicly known that Ashley Madison's site had been hacked and that the database files containing the names, email addresses, etc., of all 37 million Ashley Madison account holders were publicly available.

"We shouldn’t. Sorry to burst the bubble, but unless you are his family,
his employer, his elders or his church, it’s none of your business. I am none of those things. Yet I find myself reading about it, praying
about it, thinking about it. I get that people are interested. This,
after all, is quite a moral train wreck."

Bear in mind that R.C. Sproul Jr was defining Josh Duggar as a "moral train wreck" shortly after Duggar was outed for having 2 Ashley Madison accounts, but before it became known on August 26 that Duggar had used his Ashley Madison accounts to successfully arrange affairs, including an affair with stripper and porn whore Danica Dillon.

One might reasonably surmise from his August 25 article that R.C. Sproul Jr was dictating the terms for how Christians are permitted to respond when he, only a few days later, would out himself for his own Ashley Madison account. Rather than acknowledging that he too exhibits some signs of a moral train wreck, he very innocently chalks it up to an "unhealthy curiosity." So much for "fully, and
fearlessly confess our sins." Clearly R.C. Sproul Jr had a serious moral conflict of interest and he had no right offering up any commentary on Josh Duggar, and particularly telling anyone else, "It's none of your business."

R.C. Sproul Jr Suspended

"I recently informed the board of Ligonier Ministries, which has handled the matter internally, having suspended me until July 1, 2016."

On the face of it, this would appear to be an appropriate disciplinary action for Ligonier Ministries to take. But hang on a minute! Is R.C. Sproul Jr's suspension from Ligonier Ministries really discipline? Only if he were to have been suspended without pay. That would indeed be a punishment. However, from all accounts R.C. Sproul Jr has been suspended with pay. If this is true then it's no better than what often happens when a bad cop is suspended over charges of police brutality. Suspending a bad cop with pay is like rewarding him for bad behavior. It's a paid vacation, and it only reinforces the public perception of police corruption. That's apparently what's happened with R.C. Sproul Jr and it reflects very poorly on Ligonier Ministries.

In 2013 R.C. Sproul Jr received just over $120,000 in combined compensation from Ligonier Ministries and Reformation Bible College (his salaries in 2014 and 2015 are likely much higher). This means that R.C. Sproul Jr is receiving at least $10,000 a month for the next year to stay home and do nothing. R.C. Sproul Jr's "suspension" is a golden parachute -- a one-year paid vacation at the expense of Ligonier Ministries' donors. Ligonier donors should be outraged. They probably would be if they knew, but Ligonier has done nothing to inform their donors of the suspension, let alone that R.C. Sproul Jr has been suspended with pay. If you search Ligonier's web site you'll not find one mention of it. For all practical purposes R.C. Sproul Jr. is being rewarded for his sin and his sham confession. This is similar to how Ligonier Ministries rewarded R.C. Sproul Jr in 2006 after he'd been defrocked as a pastor by his Presbyterian denomination.

In his July 22 article R.C. Sproul Jr stated:

"The irony of the gospel is that our sins are only covered in so far as
we expose them. In order for them to be covered by the blood of Christ,
they have to be confessed by the ones committing the sin."

To "confess" means "to come into complete agreement with." As it concerns R.C. Sproul Jr's Ashley Madison scandal his confession is not in agreement with the facts. He's concealed far more than he's revealed, and he's even contradicted himself. As can be seen in this article R.C. Sproul Jr has only confessed in part and lied about the rest.

I hope for his sake RC Jr's sins are covered by the blood of the lamb. But according to his own doctrine of how we receive the remission of our sins, these particular sins of his are not under the blood.

20 Comments:

Great article! YOu answer a lot of the questions I had. I used to really like R.C. Jr. but started having second thoughts when I started hearing about all the scandals he's caused. No pastor should attract as much scandal as he does. It's just a bad testimony for Jesus. The church needs to sweep these bums out.

What is the purpose behind this blog? I can see nothing positive coming from it. The time and effort that it took to put all of this Sproul slamming together could've been spent on furthering the cause of Christ.

Anonymous, whether you recognize it or not this blog is "furthering the cause of Christ." Furthering Christ's cause isn't always pleasant. Sometimes it involves a bit of house cleaning, and let's face it, house cleaning is often not a pretty sight. "Therefore put away from yourselves the evil person." (1 Cor 5:13). "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them." (Eph 5:11)

This blog is focused on exposing ecclesiastical abuses, as are a number of other such blogs. This one just happens to be dedicated to exposing one ecclesiastical abuser in particular, RC Sproul Jr. If you take exception with this blog then you, no doubt, also take exception with other similar blogs. That's not really our concern.

Some will find our articles unsavory, cringe worthy even. But then it's dealing with a truly cringe worthy character masquerading as a "pastor" and "theologian." RC Jr was defrocked from the ministry 10 years ago but he refuses to find an honest livelihood. Instead he continues bringing shame to the name of Christ, while leeching hundreds of thousands of dollars annually off the body of Christ through their tax-deductible contributions, primarily through his daddy's Ligonier Ministries.

Will, it would have been great if Ligonier had come clean about suspending RC Jr with pay. But not only did they not do that themselves they pretty much left it all up to RC Jr to announce his suspension and determine what and how, and even how much, he would disclose about his suspension. That in itself is highly problematic and goes to show a decades-long pattern of family favoritism that RC Jr has always received. Even after being defrocked from the ministry he knew he would always have a soft place to land. That's the fruit that comes of nepotism.

Your expectation of "links" is anything but realistic. Instead, why don't you at least try doing what we did months ago. Contact Ligonier Ministries for yourself and ask, "Was RC Sproul Jr suspended with or without pay?" Start with the President, Chris Larson. Hopefully it won't take you nearly as many phone calls as it did for us. In our case, and for many other Ligonier Ministry donors who have asked, they have not only been evasive but downright obstructionist about answering such a simple question. Needless to say they're embarrassed and ashamed to have to answer such a question, especially to their donors.

Ligonier Ministry donors have a right to know what their donations are funding. I don't think there are any of them who, if they knew, would be pleased to know that RC Sproul Jr is getting a luxurious paid vacation for having caused a scandal.

Needless to say this figure is even substantially higher than the 2013 figures we originally reported in this story. 2015 figures should become available this October and will, in all likelihood, prove what we have already heard from several sources that RC Jr allegedly made almost $350,000 from Ligonier and Reformation Bible College in 2015. He continues receiving an extremely generous salary to this day while he's suspended.

Thank you for following up with numbers to support that claim, despite the omission of externally verifiable sources.

For anyone else interested, Brent Detwiler's report on these matters contains a verification from Chris Larson, president & CEO of Ligonier Ministries. Pg 39:"The board did reduce his compensation during this period of suspension. Hehas not been given full pay."http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/970485/26961790/1460141858923/268+Ligonier+Ministries+Covers-up+the+Truth+about+R.C.+Sproul+Jr.%27s+Visit+to+Ashley+Madison+Despite+Many+Appeals.pdf

Anonymous, let me just add an additional thought. In an interview that RC Sproul Jr gave last year on CBN he was asked the following (at 4:42):

Host: "How about loving the sinner but not loving the sin?"

RC Sproul Jr: "I think there's a principle to that that makes sense. But part of the love to the sinner is to call sin sin. You've got to call sinners to repentance."

Had RC Jr genuinely confessed and repented about his Ashley Madison account then this article never would have been posted. Instead he lied, and lied again, and lied some more. So we completely agree with RC Jr's position that "part of the love to the sinner is to call sin sin. You've got to call sinners to repentance." That's exactly what we're doing here -- calling a sinner to repentance, and not just any sinner, but a very prominent and influential sinner. Our concern is that he's setting a very bad example that other pastors and ministers have followed, and others will follow.

I am not surprised to find this out at all. A long time ago I was online friends with this man. I didn't like some of the things he said and frequently debated him but we kept it friendly. I looked up to him for spiritual guidance and advice...that was, until I actually needed it. I asked him, in a private message, about a situation I was dealing with and his response to me was anything but gracious and Christian. He was cruel, dismissive and outright accused me of lying about my problems. When I defended myself and explained the situation further, he claimed that it must be my fault because I wasn't a good enough Christian and needed to get right with God. I was being victimized and he told me it was all my fault. He is a dangerous person to have as a leader and caused me much grief and pain BECAUSE I BELIEVED HIM. I took his advice and tried to do better, be better and continued to be victimized because of it. He absolutely hates women and while he spends his time ranting about feminists and pontificating about skirt length, when it comes right down to it he does not care about the women who come to him for counsel.

@Will, you said, "Thank you for following up with numbers to support that claim, despite the omission of externally verifiable sources."

We have the utmost respect for Mr. Detweiler. However, his conversation with Chris Larson don't shed much light on this particular issue you take exception with (other than to prove our original point). That's not Brant's fault but, rather, the pattern of evasiveness and duplicity endemic within Ligonier Ministries. "The board did reduce his compensation during this period of suspension. He has not been given full pay" only goes to make our original point -- that he was "suspended with pay."

The question then turns to: How much was RC Jr's pay reduced by? Have you attempted to contact Ligonier to find out? We have, and we couldn't get a straight answer. It's our belief that RC Sproul Jr likely lost his ministerial housing allowance, and that was all he lost. That only happened because Ligonier was legally forced to terminate it during the time of his suspension from the ministry. A suspended minister cannot receive a housing allowance (something that is otherwise exempt from gross income). Once he's reinstated he will get that back.

@LizaJ, RC Sproul Jr didn't resign. He was fired. His cover story is that he resigned, and that's Ligonier's cover story too. It makes things a lot less messy.

This is no different from what happens in the business world and in politics. I've seen ministries do this many times too. High-placed execs, as well as politicians, have often been told, "We need to terminate our relationship. We're asking you to resign." Implicit in the message is, "We're giving you the opportunity to save face by resigning. If you don't resign we'll have no choice but to fire you."

As mentioned previously, RC Sproul Jr's 2015 compensation from Ligonier and Reformation Bible College was almost $350,000. Other than being a theologian and an author, RC Sproul Jr has no marketable job skills; and let's be candid here -- those aren't especially marketable skills.

There is no other ministry who could afford to pay RC Jr anywhere near what his daddy paid him, or even a low-six-figure salary. Moreover, with all the scandals he's caused there isn't a single ministry anywhere in the world who would hire him at all for any amount of money.

So it's inconceivable that he quit Ligonier to take a position elsewhere. Call it what you will, he was fired. Ligonier's board of directors saw the handwriting on the wall. RC Sproul Sr's health is precarious and they couldn't leave things to chance that, when he leaves this world, that his wayward son would make a power play.

it's incredible to me that the sponsors of this complaint "blog" have this much time to trash a man who admittedly made a mistake. He's talked about it openly, was kept from participating in Ligonier ministries over the past year, had to deal with the embarrassment of people knowing what he did. I don't know the details of all that happened although I have emailed him and had a brief conversation over the Internet about the struggle.Move on to some serious issues in the world today. I remember Tony Campolo years [25+] ago made some comments about some church leaders being critical of his efforts in Haiti. It went something like this: A certain amount ___? of people are dying each day without Christ, and many of you don't give a shit. As a matter a fact there are many of you who are more concerned I just said "shit" than you are about these people dying and going to a Christless eternity. I believe a similar thing is going on here with R.C. Sproul Jr. criticizers. Put your energy into changing something you can change for the cause of Christ. If your concerned about Christian men who look at things on the Internet that they shouldn't then put your efforts into program and ministries that help men deal with their feelings and issues around this kind of thing. I've got a great idea for a book for you to read: "The Prodigal God" by Tim Keller.Rick McKain rick.mckain@marrinc.org

Rick, this site was set up over ten years ago to warn naive Christians (and that might perhaps include yourself) that RC Sproul Jr has a serious drinking problem, along with a number of other problems which disqualify him from Christian ministry. For example he also has a serious issue with duplicity. An example of that would be his pattern of being caught in some terrible sin, feigning "repentance," while all the while lying about what it is he's repenting of. His Ashley Madison scandal is just one of many such examples.

Contrary to your dismissive portrayal this was not just some isolated "mistake." It fits a pattern of duplicitous character over many years.

In all likelihood RC Sproul Jr is an alcoholic, or at the very least he's got an alcohol dependency problem. You of all people (working for a "private, non-profit drug and alcohol rehab center") should be able to see the signs for yourself. But rather than expressing concern about it you shoot the messenger. You of all people should know that alcoholics are also, quite often, chronic liars and, quite often, sociopaths.

The church is already overrun with pastors and ministers who are drunks, drug abusers, child molesters, sexual perverts, porn addicts, etc. who often get away with it for years before they're ultimately caught. Then when they're caught they're quite often mollycoddled rather than disciplined according to scriptural guidelines.

In Sproul's case his arrest for drunk driving on Nov. 29, 2016 (with two minor children in his car) came some 10 years after he'd already been defrocked from the ministry by his presbytery. But because of his huge fan base he went on to deceive many thousands more gullible Christians who, like you, were quick to condemn us with pious statements like, "Put your energy into changing something you can change for the cause of Christ"; as though doing the one somehow precludes our also being able to do the other.

Thanks for your concern, but we're quite capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time.

Given that you work for a drug and alcohol rehab center, we're curious as to what you'd recommend for RC Jr. Would rehab be appropriate? If he does enter rehab and successfully complete it, would that then qualify him to be restored to the ministry?

Hello. I think you are doing right. It is hard for us to know these things, but we are unwise if we don't search the matter out. Being informed is a way we guard ourselves and those in our care, and honor Him to whom we are accountable. I would have believed the "visited" part because we don't know about this affair site. But I see what you have posted. It means that there wasn't any accident. Maybe kind of like discovering that pregnancies don't "just happen" like people used to say they did. This may sound like a side-note, but I think it is relevant. Years ago a district Representative in our state was addressing a women's group (the Rep was also a woman) about the penalties for violent rapists. The Rep. was seeking tougher penalties and stricter parameters. The group took exception and thought the penalties needed to be reduced, in fact. The Representative saw that the group did not have the full definition of violent rape. So, the Representative took a deep breath and told what is involved in violent rape. It is sick and ugly. It is not romantic. Sometimes women actually think rape is not so bad, as though the victim was just irresistible or something. This idea I have seen as an unsaved woman reading sex novels (pornography for women is often in literature). They are called "Romance novels". Well, the women in the group were horrified. Then they were angry with the Rep. for telling them, and they came down harshly on her for speaking that way at their luncheon. She didn't call anyone names, or use bad words. She was just trying to make them understand what these men had done. She was only telling them the plain, awful truth. But, they acted like she put dirt on THEM! What about the other women who had actually survived this treatment? Of the women at that luncheon (how can one host a luncheon over this topic? Why not when there is no meal?) who was it that loved the victims the most? This is like your situation. You are telling the bad that has been done. If you do not tell, there will be no correction. If you do, people say you are throwing dirt. Mr. Campolo was wrong to use that language, if he did. Everyone knows that is crass, even people who use it. That was only to shock and distract people, and then accuse them of being focused on the wrong thing. If you shout fire! you have people's attention, and you are wrong to shame them for giving it. He confused the issue. He used what he considered a bigger sin to excuse his little sin. But there are not actually any little sins. At least, the bible does not tell us of any, even if we wish that our favorite sins were little. If Mr. Campolo really said that, and if he really thinks those brothers are weaker and silly, then he did not follow Paul who tells us to be kind and careful with the weaker brother. And we are taught not to make fun of, or mock others, either. We do strange things when we think we can do them with impunity. So, I thank this site for a careful listing of problems. Be careful, too, for yourselves. The enemy gives no quarter, so please guard also your hearts, to love God's glory more than anything else. Be careful not to trust in the blowing of the whistle, and that it does not leave you without air for singing new songs to Him. ~a sister

Just Katie said, "He was cruel, dismissive and outright accused me of lying about my problems... He absolutely hates women and while he spends his time ranting about feminists and pontificating about skirt length, when it comes right down to it he does not care about the women who come to him for counsel."

Tragically you're not alone. Quite a few people, women and men, have gone to RC Jr for counsel, confiding in him their trials and tribulations, and the secrets of their hearts. As you discovered RC Sproul Jr is a hateful and cruel man, devoid of grace. He is quick to blame the victim. He is also known to take those things shared in confidence with him and then start whispering campaigns to alienate friends and even family members.

As a woman it makes sense that you would assume he hates women. Such an assumption would be entirely reasonable given that so many of RC Jr's writings and speeches are inherently misogynist. But the reality is that RC Jr hates many men just as much as he hates many women. He has targeted at least as many men as he has women with his hatefulness, spite and vindictiveness.

RC Sproul Jr is a bully. Bullies target those they perceive as being weak and vulnerable. What more opportune time than in pastoral counseling for a bully to verbally, emotionally, and spiritually abuse someone? Spiritual and emotional abuse were some of the major reasons why RC Sproul Jr was defrocked by his Presbytery in 2006. He was deemed unfit for the ministry. The fact of the matter is that RC Sproul Jr has always been unfit for ministry. With his recent arrest for drunk driving even his most loyal supporters are having to face the fact that he can't be permitted to do ministry work again.

We're very sorry to hear of the abuse you were subjected to by RC Sproul Jr. May the Lord God heal and comfort you. May He provide you with a true and compassionate pastor. But if you're not at a place in your life yet where you can trust pastors we can well appreciate that too. RC Sproul Jr has done a very effective job of destroying the trust and confidence many of us once placed in pastors.